1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to monitoring systems and in particular to a method and apparatus for surveillance for low flying aircraft. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for detecting, tracking and classifying aircraft using sound sensors distributed over a wide surface area beneath the surveillance area.
2. Background
An ability to detect and locate low flying aircraft is an important capability for areas where surveillance radars do not exist or are hindered by terrain.
Today air traffic control radar and transponder systems, as well as other radar systems, are used to attempt to track and identify aircraft covertly crossing international borders. While these systems may provide coverage in some areas, in other areas coverage is limited by high terrain or distance from widely spaced radar and transponder facilities. As a result, those surveillance systems are often unreliable for tracking low flying aircraft and for tracking aircraft attempting to evade detection by operating at low altitudes and/or covertly. In addition, monostatic radar may provide unwanted alertment to the aircraft being tracked.
One solution may be to employ numerous radar systems to cover low altitude areas of interest; however, this approach may be expensive and impractical in many areas.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus for overcoming the problems described above.